Why Do We Have Eyes
by Argothia
Summary: When Hephaestus shirks his responsibilities, Zeus sends Momus God of Criticism and Blame to fetch the gruff god from his forge, unfortunately Momus and Hephaestus are not on the best of terms.


Why we have eyes

Using Greek Myth

One day Momus, the God of criticism and satire, attended a mandatory meeting called by Zeus, probably when Zeus had dictated his order to Hermes, he'd forgotten that mandatory for all gods but Hephaestus, meant the god of criticism would be there too. The trickster god was dressed, an odd thing for a god anyway, but even odder was the garb he chose to adorn, the thing that would have and did grab the attention first was the mask. He always wore this mask, it was supposed to be a fox or so he said, but it looked like a cat, it was white, and there were no eye holes. And the rest of his garb was simple, it was a bathrobe and slippers. Aphrodite, was appalled by this, and spoke outright, "Momus, if you can't find a descent sense of fashion, follow the other gods' example and don't wear anything at all!"

The dark haired god sat down opposite the Goddess of Love and she could instantly feel him smirk behind the mask, "You'd like that. Wouldn't you?"

Aphrodite was speechless, but Artemis chided Momus, harshly, "You vulgar creature why can't you-!"

Momus cut her off, "Why can't you be silent? Honestly, 'Yap, yap', all day it's annoying."

His tone was sarcastic and obviously meant to hurt. Apollo was outraged by the trickster's treatment of Artemis, and quickly made a move to defend his sister, by giving the God of Criticism a taste of his own medicine, "Can't you ever say anything nice about anyone, No Eyes?"

Almost all the gods were delighted at the sight of Momus' proud shoulders fall, even Hera cracked a smile. There was a long moment of utter silence from the Trickster, till finally, ". . . Artemis, your heart finds a truer mark then your arrows, and Aphrodite . . . your hair feels like a breeze on the first day of summer."

His voice was so melancholy that the mood sobered quickly, even Dionysus became quiet and saddened. It was easy to forget that Momus was also the God of Poets and Writers, he could compose one moment the most beautiful poem you would ever hear and the next complain about anything and everything, it was also easy to forget that while he was often cruel he became fragile as a child when someone mentioned his eyes, or rather lack of them. After a minute, Momus shook himself, and growled sarcastically, "You summoned us, Zeus, Almighty and Wonderful?"

That signaled that the moment was over, and it was time to move on, so they did.

Zeus began the meeting, "We are here to discuss Hephaestus, who seems to have locked himself up in his forge, working on some strange project, the problem, he's slacking from his duties-."

Here Zeus paused awaiting Momus' inevitable jest, and the God of Mockery did not disappoint, "Tee, hee, he said 'Duties'."

No one laughed, they'd all heard it before and it wasn't funny the first time. Zeus continued, "And chasing away visitors, and now I come to the point-."

"Finally."

"I would like some one to go down and get Hephaestus to return to his . . . alloted tasks," Zeus grinned in Momus' direction, confident he'd thwarted the Trickster's joke, by switching the words.

No luck, "Tee, hee, he said 'alloted'."

Nobody could control their laughter at the sight of Zeus' bewildered expression. Sometimes Momus hit the right note. But he always paid for it.

"Fine, then," growled Zeus, "You think you're clever, Momus?"

"Very much so, thank you."

"Well, then, _you_ can go get Hephaestus!"

Silence, then, "That's just cold, even I'm not that cruel! _**You know**_ he hates me!"

"Precisely! Maybe this will teach you a lesson!"

"And if I refuse?"

"Oh, I'm sure Poine and I can cook up an adequate punishment."

". . . Fine, but I refuse to learn a lesson!"

"That's fine with me, just do it."

Momus got up from his seat angrily, and left, with one backwards glare at Zeus.

Momus came to the door of the forge, and easily, got through the locked oakwood sphere. He made his way down the stairs, quietly.

He found Hephaestus seated in the throne he'd made for Hera, but had enchanted to trap her, working on something truly amazing indeed, to Momus it appeared to be similar to a god in shape but without life, we might have called it a human, the first in fact, but it had no eyes and no soul or spirit as of yet. The Trickster was able to come up close enough to have plucked a hair from the Blacksmith's head, before being noticed when he spoke, "It's beautiful . . . what is it?"

Hephaestus yelped and flinched away from Momus' masked face. Then when he realized who it was swung the hammer he was holding at the mask only to miss by inches and growled, "What are you doing here, Pipsqueak!"

"Ah, ah, ah, I asked first."

". . . fine, I call it a human, it's almost done, I was just about to finish it and give it life when you, blinkin', scared the wits outta me!"

"I see . . . it's missing something though."

"How's that your business?"

"No, honestly, it needs . . . it needs . . . a . . . door."

"A what?" Hephaestus gave him an incredulous look.

"That's right, a door, you know one that you can open up so you can see their soul, their thoughts, their life! Everything!"

Hephaestus rolled his eyes," . . . Get Out, Momus."

"Sorry, can't, Zeus sent me, so unless, you want to get in serious trouble by chasing me outta here, you had better come with me," suddenly a joke struck him and unable to resist, he smirked and crooned, "You've been a naughty boy!"

Hephaestus picked up his hammer and threw it at Momus, the God of Criticism dodged and dashed out the door of the forge, closing it just in time for a large rock to crash against the Oak.

Hephaestus curled his lip as he glared after the other god, and turned back to the human, then growled, "A door to the soul, eh, well, if that's how it is then I'll give them something you have not of, Momus!"

So, into the head he carved eyes and in them he placed the soul. This is why we have eyes so that they may be the 'doors' to our souls.

**

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Author's Notes**

_I can hear a great crowd of people asking questions half of them are going 'Who's Momus did you make him up?' about 49% are going, 'You do know about the 'Knights of Momus' secret society right?' and about 1% are saying 'Why aren't writing more in your Digimon story?'_

_Well my friends here are the answers, 'No, I did not make him up, Momus was really a Greek god he presided over Criticism, Blame, Satire, Mockery, Writers, and Poets, the criticism and blame parts are probably why he wasn't talked about much in Greek Mythology, he, as far as I know was only mentioned among a list of his siblings, that is either the children of Nyx who had no father or the children of Nyx and Erebus, and there was one tiny 'Aesop's Fable' type thing (I can't remember if Aesop actually wrote it or it was just a little story that people used to tell their children to make them behave) with him in it and some stories of how he criticized the other gods and got kicked off Mount Olympus for it.'_

_number two: 'Yes, I'm well aware of that secret society, I just choose to ignore them', _

_and, finally, '. . . __I'm sorta kinda stuck . . . I'm working on it, this is just a small story to keep everybody occupied in the meantime.' _

_If you have any other questions or feel like critiquing this little tale feel free to send me a message, I'd be happy to answer any questions and would gladly take any criticism you may have to offer._


End file.
